Program 15.8.-21.8.2026
Vienna Philharmonic/Tugan Sokhiev (Salzburg Festival 2026, Großes Festspielhaus). An ORF and UNITEL production.
SIEMENS BREAKFAST CONCERT
Program
MAURICE RAVEL Piano Concerto in G major
CLAUDE DEBUSSY La Mer – Trois esquisses symphoniques Interval
SERGEI PROKOFIEV Suite from the ballet Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64
Conductor: Tugan Sokhiev
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic
With: Lang Lang (piano)
Duration: 90 minutes
Opéra-comique in four acts by Georges Bizet (Salzburg Festival 2026, Großes Festspielhaus – in French). An ORF, BR/ARTE and UNITEL production
LIVE
In Carmen, we encounter an outsider who uncompromisingly seeks freedom in life and love – until her violent death at the hands of her spurned former lover, Don José. José immediately senses the power that Carmen has over him. He will fall for her, with every fibre of his being, deserting and becoming a criminal just to be near her. And when she turns away from him, he will kill her…
In her production, director and choreographer Gabriela Carrizo sets out to explore the identity and motives of this quasi-mythical woman, focusing on the perspectives of both Carmen and José. As in her creations for her Peeping Tom dance theatre company, she zooms in on the psyche and unconscious of the characters. Beyond depicting a fatal relationship, Carrizo is intent on making palpable the part played by the protagonists’ context in the story’s dynamics and tragic outcome.
Cast
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis | Director: Gabriela Carrizo (Peeping Tom) | Orchestra: Utopia | Duration: 165 minutes | With: Asmik Grigorian (Carmen), Jonathan Tetelman (Don José), Kristina Mkhitaryan (Micaëla), Davide Luciano (Escamillo), Iveta Simonyan (Frasquita), Anita Monserrat (Mercédès), Matthias Winckhler (Zuniga), Liviu Holender (Moralès), Michael Arivony (Le Dancaïre), Mingjie Lei (Le Remendado)
Jonathan Tetelman as Don José.
Opera in one act with a prelude by Richard Strauss (Salzburg Festival 2026, Haus für Mozart – in German). An ORF, 3sat, NHK and UNITEL production
Ariadne auf Naxos in a Mars theatre – the wealthy Viennese decadence lost in outer space. For his directorial debut at the Salzburg Festival, Ersan Mondtag relocates Richard Strauss’s opera to the dreamworld of today’s billionaires. In an airtight palace on the red planet, the satirical prologue about boundless vanity and the ensuing love opera based on a mythological subject together form a coherent portrait of the present day. In this double opera – combining social satire (in the prologue) and tragic music theatre (in the one-act opera that follows) – Hofmannsthal engages with pointed precision with people who believe that money can buy everything. Strauss, meanwhile, composes the festive ‘opera performance’ after the cheerfully buoyant parlando of the prologue in a classical style that quotes various genres and predecessors, thereby celebrating the triumph of high culture. In this transition from parody to personality, one can feel with great intensity why the accumulation of wealth and the human spirit are two entirely different matters.
Cast
Conductor: Manfred Honeck | Director: Ersan Mondtag | Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic | Duration: 135 minutes | With: Kate Lindsey (The composer), Christina Nilsson (The prima donna/Ariadne), Eric Cutler (The tenor/Bacchus), Ziyi Dai (Zerbinetta), Johannes Silberschneider (The Major-Domo), Christoph Pohl (a music teacher), Jonas Hacker (a dance master)
Under the musical direction of Manfred Honeck.
An opera by Leoš Janáček (Salzburg Festival 2022, Felsenreitschule – in Czech). An ORF, 3sat and UNITEL production.
A young woman in an atmosphere of repression and stagnation: Since her marriage to Tichon, Káťa has been living in a claustrophobic environment, which is defined by her despotic mother-in-law and the narrow-mindedness of the smalltown milieu. When she starts an affair with Boris, it leads to desires that go far beyond the longing for fulfilled love. Living now seems even more impossible for Káťa than ever before. ) Leoš Janáček approached the protagonist of his opera Káťa Kabanová (1921) with the subtle sensitivity that he reserves for all his major female figures. His unmistakable musical/dramatic language conveys characters, psychology and atmosphere in their most concentrated form and goes under the skin with naked directness.
Cast
Conductor: Jakub Hrůša | Director: Barrie Kosky | Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic | Duration: 165 minutes | With: Jens Larsen (Dikoj), David Butt Philip (Boris), Evelyn Herlitzius (Kabanicha), Jaroslav Březina (Tichon), Corinne Winters (Káťa), Benjamin Hulett (Kudrjas), Jarmila Balážová (Varvara)
The soprano and actress Corinne Winters as Káťa.
A German opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Salzburg Festival 2006, Großes Festspielhaus). An UNITEL and BFMI production, co-produced with ORF.
At the Large Festival Hall it was Maestro Riccardo Muti who conducted the fairy tale play on the triumph of reason and humanism. Paul Groves sings the noble Prince Tamino, Genia Kühmeier is Pamina. Diana Damrau plays the Queen of the Night and her adversary, the supposedly evil Sarastro, who turns out to be the protector of true humanity, is sung by the magnificent René Pape. When the curtain was raised for Pierre Audi’s new production of The Magic Flute on August 4, 2006, this meant another anniversary in the Mozart year: The 200th performance of the classic in the course of the Salzburg Festival was celebrated. The success story of Die Zauberflöte already began with its premiere in Vienna at Schikaneder’s Freihaustheater, which Mozart himself conducted.
Cast
Conductor: Riccardo Muti | Director: Pierre Audi | Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic | Duration: 180 minutes | With: Paul Groves (Tamino), Genia Kühmeier (Pamina), René Pape (Sarastro), Christian Gerhaher (Papageno), Irena Bespalovaite (Papagena), Diana Damrau (Queen of the Night)
Genia Kühmeier as Pamina with Christian Gerhaher as Papageno.
Opera seria in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Salzburg Festival 2017, Felsenreitschule – in Italian). An ORF, 3sat and UNITEL production.
With his comeback production of Mozart’s last opera La Clemenza at the 2017 Salzburg Festival, director Peter Sellars, together with the “young and wild” Teodor Currentzis at the conductor’s desk, presented an exciting, intelligent and multi-layered update to the story of the ancient Roman emperor Titus, which retells it close to our own societal reality. The director casts Servilia and Sesto as two individuals from a trek of refugees, whom Titus finds pleasing. Trust, however, is abused, and leads to an assassination attempt against the ruler. In terms of music, the opera was also expanded to include excerpts from the Mass in C minor and the Masonic Funeral Music. The result was greeted with frenetic applause at the premiere. The critics described it as a captivating evening of opera: “Mozart is again ensuring thrills and chills in Salzburg.”
Cast
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis | Director: Peter Sellars | Orchestra: musicAeterna | Duration: 167 minutes | With: Russell Thomas (Tito), Golda Schultz (Vitellia), Christina Gansch (Servilia), Marianne Crebassa (Sesto), Jeanine De Bique (Annio), Willard White (Publio)
Russell Thomas as Tito Vespasiano and Marianne Crebassa as Sesto.
The play about the death of the rich man by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Salzburg Festival 2024, Domplatz – in German). An ORF and UNITEL production.
It was the hotly discussed event of the Salzburg Festival: The new interpretation of Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann by the British-American duo of directors Julian Crouch and Brian Mertes. It begins, fascinatingly, with the entry of a troupe of travelling entertainers, with live music and a wide range of scary masks. They then go on to perform the “Play about the death of the rich man” with Cornelius Obonya as the new Jedermann and Brigitte Hobmeier as the enticing paramour. She speeds to the Domplatz on a gold-plated bicycle – a sexy vixen for the rich spendthrift. The extended casts features a series of film stars such as Peter Lohmeyer (Death), Simon Schwarz as the devil, Jürgen Tarrach as Mammon and Johannes Silberschneider as the poor neighbor. God is a woman this time, played by Florentina Rucker.
Cast
Director: Julian Crouch/Brian Mertes | Duration: 124 minutes | With: Cornelius Obonya (Everyman), Brigitte Hobmeier (Paramour), Florentina Rucker (God), Peter Lohmeyer (Death), Simon Schwarz (Devil), Sarah Viktoria Frick (Deeds)
Cornelius Obonya and Brigitte Hobmeier at the Domplatz.
Singspiel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Salzburg Festival 2006, BFMI, UNITEL). A production in association with the Salzburger Marionettentheater.
SIEMENS CHILDRENS PROGRAM
Mozart wrote the singspiel Bastien und Bastienne in Vienna at the tender age of 12, telling the story of a young shepherd (Bastien) and shepherdess (Bastienne) in love, whose happiness has been tainted since a rich young noblewoman from the city has managed to capture Bastien’s attention. However, thanks to the advice of the wise magician Colas and, more particularly, the enduring love between the shepherd and shepherdess, the story has a happy ending.
Cast
Conductor: Elisabeth Fuchs
Director: Thomas Reichert
Duration: 108 minutes
The puppet show, directed by Thomas Reichert.
Tragedia lirica in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti (Salzburg Festival 2025, Großes Festspielhaus – in Italian). An ORF, NHK and UNITEL production.
Gaetano Donizetti’s Belcanto opera Maria Stuarda (1835) retells the power struggle between two historical queens of the 16th century: Maria Stuart of Scotland and Elisabeth I. of England. A terrible fact binds these two women together for eternity: One of them has to die. The deadly enmity is enflamed by a single question: Whom does the English throne belong to? Donizetti’s Belcanto opera is based on Schiller’s tragedy Maria Stuart. However, it focuses even stronger on the emotional sides of both antagonists, compressed to the last 24 hours prior to the signing of the death sentence and Maria’s execution. During this short period of time they experience every conceivable emotional extreme: triumphant joy, depressive breakdowns, tormenting introspection, beckoning freedom and paralyzing fear of death. The new interpretation by Ulrich Rasche, which is characterized by radical form awareness, features two queens of song – Kate Lindsey and Lisette Oropesa – in the stellar roles of Maria Stuart and Elisabeth I.
Cast
Conductor: Antonello Manacorda | Director: Ulrich Rasche | Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic | Chor: Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus | Duration: 138 minutes | With: Kate Lindsey (Elisabetta), Lisette Oropesa (Maria Stuarda), Bekhzod Davronov (Roberto, Count of Leicester), Aleksei Kulagin (Giorgio Talbot), Thomas Lehman (Lord Guglielmo Cecil)
Elisabetta (Kate Lindsey) und Maria Stuarda (Lisette Oropesa).